Heather’ 40th Birthday Celebration

 We’re going to Mexico City (CDMX) baby!! I am SO looking forward to celebrating my 40th Birthday with You, in my favorite city, with a group of really lovely people I feel lucky to call friends.

This trip is going to be sexy, we are going to turn up and we are going to celebrate Mexico's culture, spirit and warmth. There is no place like Mexico City and while it’s not the easiest location in Mexico to get to, it’s absolutely worth the journey. I hope you take the invitation! If you need some excuses/incentives it's around Valentine’s Day, on Presidents Day Weekend and in the middle of winter.

Heather’s CDMX 40th Birthday Weekend Plan

Friday February 16: Street Taco Tour & Lucha Libra at Arena Mexico

We’ll venture out on a walking tour with knowledgeable, taco loving guides through downtown CDMX, Colonia Juarez and Roma. The journey will end at  Arena Mexico for Lucha Libre, the glorious and theatrical wrestling matches of Mexico’s most revered luchadors

Time: 6:30 PM − 10:30 PM

Cost: $75/person, includes all you can eat street tacos, water/soda, the guided tour and admission to Lucha Libra.

Meeting Point: In front of Sanborns at Hamburgo 63, Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México 06600

Meet here in front of Sanborns

Saturday February 17, 2024: Birthday Party Float through Xochimilco

We’ll glide down the ancient canals of Xochimilco on a trajinera (gondola) and enjoy a tour and each other amongst the world famous floating chinampas (gardens). I’ll provide the food, booze and music but you’ll also be able to call over floating vendors  with food, booze and mariachi bands to add to the fun. 

Time: 4:00 pm-7:30 pm

Cost: $80/ person, includes the boat journey, guided tour, food, drinks and booze. Bring cash for all the fun floating extras and great souvenir shopping in the area

3:45 PM Meeting Point: Canal 237, San Jerónimo, Xochimilco, 16420 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Ciudad de México, Ciudad de México 16420 (Don’t be late we’ll cruise at 4pm on the dot!)

Meet here by the Purple Arches

Sunday February 18: Coyocan/Casa Azul (Frida Kahlo’s House)

Time TBD

This is an optional excursion but I’ll be visiting Frida Khalo’s legendary Blue House in the vibrant Coyoacan Neighborhood. The admission to the museum and Casa Azul is about $15. Even if you don’t go to the museum, the area immediately surrounding it is awesome! 

Monday February 19

Justin and I will be flying to  Puerto Escondido/Mazunte to get some sun/beach 12pm Monday. A one way ticket from CDMX is around $50. It feels like Tulum did over 10 years ago, it's a very special place few gringos venture to.  We’ll stay till Saturday Feb 24 and back through Tijuana to save some money. This would be a “plan your own adventure” trip and not part of my official 40th Birthday Celebration but would be awesome to have friends in town to explore with. Extra points for going even further into nearby Oaxaca City, Chiapas and even Guatemala! 

Lodging:

Instead of doing a group booking, which stresses me tf out, everyone can secure their own lodging that meets their budget, needs and trip plans. My hope is folks on this trip might even share lodging if communal housing sounds good! Mexico City has really glorious Air BnB/VRBO options at lovely prices.They’re unique and often have terraces, rooftops and indoor gardens. Do your best to book in/near these incredible neighborhoods: La Condesa, Roma Norte, Hippodromo, Roma, Roma Sur. Basically anything within a 15-20 minutes walking radius of “Parque Espana- Mexico City”. These neighborhoods are gorgeous, hip and have tons of the restaurants, cafes, street food options and great bars that we’ll want to get into. There are some very high class hostels and great hotels too. We’re staying right around Parque Espana at Tenancingo 16, Mexico City Mexico. I made sure to book a spot where I could host us all for our first night gathering! Check out the list I have going for great Air BnB’s in the neighborhood at various sizes, you can add spots you find on there too! CDMX 40th Air BnB Spots

Flights: Unfortunately flights from the PNW to Mexico City can be ROUGH. You almost always have a stop unless you pay a premium. Sometimes just flying to LA gives you much better options but you’ll have to get crafty. Last week tickets were bargain basement low and this week they’re high, AAARGH!! The Dark Arts of Flight Ticket Buying are telling me they’ll have one last final dip in price before getting jacked to all hell in the 3-4 months remaining before my birthday. Set those Google/Hopper travel alerts ya’ll!

-The economy hack: Fly into San Diego, walk across the Mexican border and fly from Tijuana to Mexico City. This flight is like $100! You’ll need to coordinate transport from the San Diego Airport to the Mexican border (the slow but cute San Diego Trolley will take you all the way there). Once you’re inside Mexico the cost of flying becomes enticingly inexpensive! Use this trip to explore other parts of Mexico as flights from CDMX are often  the cheapest.

-The one way hack: When it comes to a multi city trip I like to book a series of One ways from home to back. For this trip we’ll be doing something like Seattle> CDMX>Puerto Escondido>Seattle. I might find a flight with a long layover in a cool place Guadalajara or Puebla to squeeze some extra exploration in.

Heather and Justins Flights:

Thursday Feb 15 

Depart Seatac at 9:33 am PST (Aeromexico)

Arrive in Mexico City at 5:10 pm MST (Terminal 2) 

Our CDMX Air BnB Address in the Condesa Neighborhood: Tenancingo 16, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

Monday Feb 19 

Leave Mexico City at 12:05pm (Viva Aerobus, Nonstop)

Arrive in Puerto Escondido at 1:20pm

Our Puerto Escondido Address in Las Brisas Zicatela: Baja California Norte, Brisas de Zicatela, Oaxaca 70934, Mexico

Saturday Feb 24 

Leave Puerto Escondido at 2 pm (Viva Aerobus)

Arrive in Mexico City at 3:20 pm, One last night in Mexico City!

Sunday Feb 25

Depart Mexico City at 2:55pm (Viva Aerobus)

Arrive in Tijuana at 4:40pm

Cross Border to San Diego on CBX Bridge

Spend the night in San Diego

Monday Feb 26/Tuesday Feb 27

Depart San Diego for Seattle

Documents: You must have a valid US Passport, sometimes if it expires in less than 6 months you can have problems. Wait times are LONG right now for renewals so all passport work will need to be in gear like yesterday. Other than that you’re good to go.

Time Zone: CDMX is on Central Standard Time, they are one hour ahead of Pacific Time

Altitude: CDMX sits at nearly 7350 feet (2240 meters), it’s higher than Denver’s measly 5280 feet! Because of that you may feel the effects of altitude sickness. I get it pretty bad and so I’m considering flying in a day early to adjust. Nausea, lightheadedness, easy out of breathness and fatigue are all signs. With rest and hydration most can adjust in a half a day to the thinner air.

Weather/Atmosphere: It will be in the 70s/mid-80’s during the day and 40s/low-60’s at night so layers and light jackets will be a good idea. Mexico City is basically an old growth jungle with a city inside of it so huge roots come up out of sidewalk, consider this with footwear. Unfortunately because of Mexico City's valley situation it does collect smog and as this is the 6th largest city in the world that smog can get bad. Luckily in February rain showers come and go and the air tends to be freshest. Keep in mind, like the PNW,  many places won’t necessarily have AC or heating. The tap water is not recommended to drink, I brush my teeth with it no problem, but filtered/bottle water will be necessary for hydration. Most lodgings will provide this and it’s easy to buy. Mexico City has always been and felt incredibly safe to us.

Mexico City Starter Pack-Choose your own adventure! This will be my 6th or 7th trip to Mexico City so I’ll be tapping out on some of the “Must See” things below and puttering around the city to new neighborhoods.. I want you to build the trip that works best for you and get the most out of it. Just make it to dinner on Friday and especially Saturday night and we good!

-Teotihuacan: The incredible and mysterious great pyramids right outside of Mexico City! We booked a tour that included transportation through Air BnB Experiences (LOTS of cool stuff there!). This is a full day trip (7/8am-6pm) so I suggest doing this Sunday or Monday.

-The Mercados (markets): Love me a mercado, THIS is the hack for finding the most reasonably priced souvenirs, take home clothes, pottery etc. You can also find beautifully grown food to cook at your lodging and meals to enjoy while taking in the frenetic energy. Stick to the more tourist friendly markets like Mercado Coyocan, La Ciudadela (both priced for tourists) and Mercado Portales (priced for locals).

-Zocalo (City Center)/Ancient Tenochtitlan: Downtown Mexico has SO much incredible history and it’s a great place to start your exploration. Don’t miss the stunning House of Tiles!

-Frida Khalo’s House “Casa Azul & Coyocan: Tour Frida Khalo’s beautiful home and enjoy her art in the integrated museum. This is in a great neighborhood, the lovely Mercado Coyocan is nearby and even the inspiringly beautiful facade of Frida’s house is worth the trip over.

-The Museums: Museum lovers will be like a kid in a candy store in this city! The main one people go to visit is the National Museum of Anthropology (Museo de Nacional de Anthropologia open Tuesday to Sunday) which tells the geological, cultural and sociological tale of Mexico from the dino’s on! Bellas Artes is the popular fine arts museum which is worth the visit for the photos of the facade alone. When it comes to museums I prefer gawking at art so the contemporary art museum, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporarneo, and folk art museum, Museo de Arte Popular, were my favorites!

-Hop On/Hop Off City Tour Bus: If you can get past feeling like a tourist this is low key the best way to get to know Mexico City and learn the history and layout. We had a lot of fun doing the whole loop, we didn’t get off, just rode around and marveled and took pictures. We then returned to our favorite spots the following days for a closer look.

Mexico Content: Download Duolingo so you can nail down common Spanish phrases that will go a LONG way to make your trip smoother and more connected to Mexico.  Shake up your algorithm with some Spanish speaking content by watching Coco, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Like Water for Chocolate and even Nacho Libre!  My fellow historical fiction homies will adore Barabara Kinsolvers’ “The Lacuna” centered around Lenin/1920-30’s/Socialism/Diego Rivera/Frida Khalo times aka The Mexican Revolution which transformed the country. I also can’t recommend Taco Chronicles on Netflix enough! Musicheads, Natalia Lafourcade has to be on your rotation!

Great Side Trips from Mexico City:

Guanajuato: 4.5 hour bus northwest of CDMX.I tried to squeeze it in but a trip to Guanjuato was not in the cards this trip! If you have time, you’ve just GOT to see it! It’s a gorgeous colonial town you’ll remember forever with the famous adjacent ex pat town, San Miguel de Allende. You’d have to fly into Leon (Mexico's Leather Capitol) and take a one hour bus. You could catch a 3 hour or so bus to/from Mexico City.

Puerto Escondido: 13 hour bus or 90 minute flight south of CDMX. The last of the yet to be spoiled backpacker beaches.

Tolantongo: 4.5 hours north of Mexico City. Caves and Hot Springs outside the city.  Never been.

Puebla: 2.5 hour bus southwest to CDMX. Gorgeous colonial town and the center of the talavera pottery industry. Never been.

Tepotzlan: 90 minutes drive South of CDMX. I’ve never been but it’s supposed to be incredible for it’s luscious jungle valleys and Spiritual/indigenous medicine history, birthplace of the Aztec gods!-\

Michoacan/Patzcuaro: 5 hour drive west of CDMX. Great food and the epicenter of the traditions and ceremony of Dia De Los Muertos.

Ok There you have it!! Flights, lodging and booking your extra trips and attractions is on you and on your timing, no deadlines or deposits needed from me. Keep me posted on your RSVP and let me know if you need an ear/support while you're planning, obviously I love to talk Mexico! Please know that this is not the last group trip I’ll be planning so if it doesn’t pan out this time, cheers to the next and absolutely no hard feelings.

-invite only

-adults only

-good vibes only

With all my love and hope to see you in Mexico,

Heather Adams